An acquaintance once asked me what I majored in at college. When I replied visual art and writing, he laughed and said, “Wow, you’re a double threat for never getting a job!” Yet not only do I make a living at both, I find that art and writing frequently complement each other. There are a number of artists who write and also writers who make art or take photographs. Perhaps making marks on paper to draw an image is not altogether unrelated to making marks on paper to form words. Writing is an extension of visual language. That is, after all, how characters in Chinese and Japanese originally came to be.
A good friend of mine, a wordsmith who delights in making up nicknames for me, first dubbed me Bonomatopoeia. I’ve laughed to think that perhaps it means a loud girl from Kentucky. But when you break down the parts of it, using Webster as a guide, it seems to mean What Bonnie Makes. And that seems fitting for someone who creates visual art as well as stories.
What I hope to do with this blog is to make more art and, in writing about it, to spur my work along, to share it with friends, and to figure out why I make the work that comes out of my pencil or pen, whether it’s words or pictures or both.
Bonnie Arant Ertelt 
Bonnie: I love your art and the stories you tell about making it. I’ve also found the most satisfying art comes when I’m not trying hard to make something, just going with the flow. Joanne